What Hormone Disruptors Found in Dog Food Means

A new study on dog foods is causing quite a stir, for very good reason. Environmental chemicals are believed to be the cause in a decline in dog reproductive function; the very same chemicals were found in dog food.

First, Dr. Michael Fox provides this explanation of the study…

COMMERCIAL DOG FOODS AFFECT FERTILITY AND SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

Researchers Richard G. Lea and associates published on Aug 9th, 20016, a report entitled Environmental chemicals impact dog semen quality in vitro and may be associated with a temporal decline in sperm motility and increased cryptorchidism. (In Nature, Scientific Reports6, Article number: 31281 (2016) doi:10.1038/srep31281). Against the background of declining semen quality and rising incidence of undescended testes (Cryptorchidism) in humans associated with exposure to environmental chemicals (ECs) during development they report that “a population of breeding dogs exhibit a 26 year (1988–2014) decline in sperm quality and a concurrent increased incidence of cryptorchidism in male offspring (1995–2014). A decline in the number of males born relative to the number of females was also observed. ECs, including diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and polychlorinated bisphenol 153 (PCB153), were detected in adult dog testes and commercial dog foods at concentrations reported to perturb reproductive function in other species”.

Estrogen-mimicking, endocrine-disrupting chemicals have become virtually ubiquitous in many of the foods we consume, some of which, along with their byproducts, are included in most manufactured pet foods; in the can-linings of moist, and in plastic bagging and wrapping of dry and semi-moist foods. Plastic may also be processed into the manufactured food along with discarded meats, packaging and all.

Food wrappers and other industrial and commercial products from firefighting foam to water-repellant clothing contain poly-and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, detected in drinking water, have endocrine disrupting and carcinogenic properties.

Dioxins, predominantly released as byproducts of human activities such as incineration and fuel combustion, are a most potent class of carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. They are ubiquitous in the environment, and from the soil and vegetation undergo bioaccumulation in the fat (tallow) of cattle, and sea foods, especially farmed salmon, which are common pet food ingredients. Their adverse impact on wildlife reproduction and sexual development in several aquatic and terrestrial species has been well documented.

Other estrogen-mimicking and endocrine disrupting contaminants of pet (and human) foods include glyphosate and other herbicide residues such as atrazine in corn and other cereals along with phytoestrogens in soy products especially in GMO soy, a widely used pet food ingredient. Ethoxyquin is an endocrine disruptor and is still added to pet foods as an antioxidant to reduce rancidity.

Aflatoxin B1—yet another endocrine disruptor-from the mold on corn and other cereals, is often found in dry dog foods which are recalled too late to save many dogs from acute toxicity and death. Aflatoxins, dioxins and other endocrine disruptors, estrogen mimics, carcinogens and obesogens have harmful consequences in extremely low concentrations in the diet over an extended time period with possible synergism operating where one contaminant increases the toxicity of one or more others; and prenatal, epigenetic, developmental effects on the offspring of exposed parents.

Wikipedia.com explains: “Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that, at certain doses, can interfere with endocrine (or hormone) systems. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be derailed by hormone disruptors.”

BPA
BPA stands for bisphenol A. The chemical is found in the lining of many (most) canned foods (pet and human). To learn more about BPA in pet food Click Here.

EWG.org‘s warning on BPA: “Some may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but do you really want a chemical used in plastics imitating the sex hormone estrogen in your body? No! Unfortunately, this synthetic hormone can trick the body into thinking it’s the real thing – and the results aren’t pretty. BPA has been linked to everything from breast and others cancers to reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty and heart disease, and according to government tests, 93 percent of Americans have BPA in their bodies!”

Atrazine (herbicide)

From EWG.org: “What happens when you introduce highly toxic chemicals into nature and turn your back? For one thing, feminization of male frogs. That’s right, researchers have found that exposure to even low levels of the herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into females that produce completely viable eggs. Atrazine is widely used on the majority of corn crops in the United States, and consequently it’s a pervasive drinking water contaminant. Atrazine has been linked to breast tumors, delayed puberty and prostate inflammation in animals, and some research has linked it to prostate cancer in people.”

PhthalatesCenters for Disease Control states “Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and harder to break. They are often called plasticizers.”

From EWG.org: “Did you know that a specific signal programs cells in our bodies to die? It’s totally normal and healthy for 50 billion cells in your body to die every day! But studies have shown that chemicals called phthalates can trigger what’s known as “death-inducing signaling” in testicular cells, making them die earlier than they should. Yep, that’s cell death – in your man parts. If that’s not enough, studies have linked phthalates to hormone changes, lower sperm count, less mobile sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, diabetes and thyroid irregularities.”

To add to the phthalates concern is a commonly used animal feed ingredient; grocery waste. Across the US, behind every grocery store are ‘recycling’ containers (looking identical to dumpsters) to hold expired grocery food. This material – in most cases including all plastic packaging – is ground and cooked to be included as an animal feed ingredient. During the AAFCO discussion of this ingredient, plastic containers were specifically mentioned (example expired yogurt cups in the plastic containers). Dr. Cathy Alinovi address the AAFCO committee expressing concern of phthalates in milk (as example); the industry audience openly and loudly boo-ed her. The point is, plastic material is fed to livestock animals that become food. Humans and pets are consuming those food products, also consuming the plastic/phthalates.

Ethoxyquin
‘E’ is a commonly used “antioxidant” (otherwise known as a chemical preservative), linked to cancer. In 1992, the late Dr. Gloria Dodds addressed the concern of ‘E’ in pet foods with FDA; which was ignored. Ethoxyquin was originally manufactured by Monsanto. Unfortunately for consumers the inclusion of ‘E’ in a pet food is not always stated in the ingredient listing; if an ingredient supplier uses ‘E’ – not the actual manufacturer – current regulations do not require it to be stated in the pet food ingredients.

Personal opinion: What this study proves is that the risk from chemicals have been ignored far too long. The system of approving these chemicals is severely flawed; industry assures FDA and other regulatory bodies these chemicals are safe (GRAS – Generally Recognized as Safe), and all authorities blindly believe.

The safest food for your pet (and you) is organic, and meat from pasture raised (their entire life) animals. These foods are not cheap, but increased risk of serious disease isn’t cheap either. If you cannot afford to feed yourself and your pets with 100% organic and pasture raised animal meat/organic grains, fruits and vegetables – do some. Part clean food is better than no clean food.

Ask your pet food manufacturer:

if meats are sourced from pasture raised animals (100% pasture raised) or sourced from livestock fed a commercial feed;

if canned/moist pet foods contain BPA in the lining/packaging;

if any ingredient was treated with ethoxyquin (by the manufacturer or the ingredient supplier);

if vegetable and fruit ingredients were treated with any pesticide/is the pet food GMO free?

yea I agree. However, dog reproduction is least of our worries. in fact I wish more people put effort in banning dog breeders and puppy mills, that’s the real problem as much as I think a voice needs to be heard regarding petfood, I’m more worried about the inhumane treatment of our animals and them being bought and sold and treatment of them to reproduce for profit.

I wish people would get priorities straight and Susan would address that. anytime your neighbor buys that French bulldog you just loaded some losers pocket with money that treats his or her animals as a money making machine and probably inhumane while not saving a life and over 3 million healthy dogs and cats in United States are euthanized each year for space.

I think you are missing the point of what the persons comment meant. She was stating that everytime a dog or cat is bought, whether from a “reputable breeder” or from a pet store that buys their pups/dogs cats/kittens from dispicable “puppy/kitten Mills” that means death for millions of animals in kill shelter all over the world! or animals that languish for a long time in always over-crowded no-kill shelters, or Rescue group’s.

I also feel that honestly, there is NO good reason why people must have a “designer pet” WHY!? does anyone need a “supposed pure breed animal” Think long & hard about that question & the answer to it!

The truth of the matter is, that for every pet bought, another perfectly adoptable one is murdered ONLY because of there not being enough homes for them all. With the reality of those staggering statistics, there is no justification in my opinion, (as well as MANY people’s opinion’s) for ANY breeding to occur, until EVERY shelter, EVERY Rescue group is EMPTY & there just aren’t enough rescue animals to go around! Based on the extreme irresponsibility of the human race, it is highly doubtful that that will ever happen, sadly, unfortunately!

I find it very hard to believe that ANYONE could give any REAL plausible reason for WHY they must buy a pure-breed animal, instead of adopting & saving the life of a rescue animal!

I wonder, if all rescue/shelter dogs and cats are spayed/neutered before they leave for their new homes and all breeders (no matter how good) are banned…where are we to get our next generation of pets from?

Actually, shelters require anyone who has had a dog for a few days (such as found a lost or stolen pet) to state they are the owner. This is because once we take care of a stray cat or dog the shelters then state that we assumed ownership. So, those numbers are also not exactly correct. Also, what you have to remember is that most dogs in shelters only make up 1% of the total dog population. Of those dogs there, many are someone’s lost or stolen pet. This takes owner surrender down to less than .5% of pet owners. Remember that over 80 million people own a dog in the US. The majority 99% of pet owners keep their pets for life. You will always have a select few who do not.

guest
Aug 11, 2016

Unfortunately not much good quality pet food out there. We have had success with onlynaturalpet dehydrated easy raw which is real food that is dehydrated and this raw food is not radiated. Add your own raw organic whole eggs, just put an egg or two in the blender and blend the entire egg including the shell for calcium, and mix in with your dog’s food.

Best to buy local organic eggs from small farms that do NOT radiate their eggs. Commercial eggs are usually radiated, so no nutrition for pets or humans.

Tests on animals eating any radiated food kills the nutrition of the food and only leaves the calories, so health declines if one, animal or human is eating only radiated food. Many pet foods are radiated including the frozen raw pet food. So it is imperative to make sure you are feeding non radiated food.for both pets and humans. Food is radiated so it will last longer on the shelf or in the fridge or freezer but that also means no nutrition, so whats the point in wasting money on non nutritional food.

Do NOT microwave your pets or human food, again even microwaves radiate and kill the nutrition in food, just leaving the calories.
Avoid vaccines, all vaccines. Vaccines contain hormone disrupting chemicals, cancer cells, mercury, etc.

Use nosodes as the safe alternative to vaccines and nosodes work much better in protecting against disease. Read more by Dr Todd Cooney at Vet Integrative magazine, DogsNaturallyMagazine, etc….Find a holistic vet or buy the nosodes yourself and research and read the directions. Find at pureformulas.com holisticanimalmedicines, wolfcreekranch.NET VitalAnimal.com by Dr Falconer, etc…

Avoid pesticides like heartgard, frontline, bravecto trifexis, and all chemical pesticides as these all contain hormone disrupters. Look for the natural alternatives.

If your pet gets a tick disease, avoid antibiotics as antibiotics only mask the symptons and the tick disease will only get worse or become fatal. Get tick nosodes, lyme tick nosode, Erhlicia tick nosodes, rocky mountain tick nosodes, etc. And wolfcreekranch.NET has a parasite zapper terminator machine similar to the Dr Rife machine that kills off parasitic diseases in pets.

Stop using pesticides and herbicides in your yard, as these contain major hormone disrupters.
Avoid cleaning chemicals, again filled with chemical hormone disrupters.

For anything and everything, one must research for the natural safe alternative. You will never hear about safe alternatives in the mainstream media, you must research online to find them and sign up for natural websites that have lots of news on safe alternatives..

RIGHT ON!!! When will people realize that there are natural alternatives & that anytime we can use a natural solution, we should, for people & pets.

The “powers that be” will always tell you otherwise, but people need to follow the $$$$ trail! It’s about profits & greed. Much of the “supposed scientific research” is tainted, as the corruption of ALL the regulatory agencies do NOT have our or our pet’s best interest at heart.

I could go on & on with instances where this happens time & time again, but I will leave it at that.

Sadly many people will believable “junk science” they are being told and never really challenge it.

The hardest thing I have to deal with as a lifelong rescuer, is that it’s hard to change the “masses” minds about a lot of these issues & I have to adopt these animals out! I do everything I can to find “like minded” adopters, or at least people that are forward thinkers who will listen to what I am trying to educate them about, but it is far from easy! You only have a certain amount of time before people get overwhelmed from too much information. How can I possibly educate them on every single detail, when it has taken me hours upon hours to learn what I now know! It’s really tuff! I do the best I can by directing them to Truthaboutpetfood.com, Dr.Becker’s e-newsletters, Dr. Hofve’s site etc and share my personal experiences with my own animals, then pray it all sinks in and that they follow my advise & directions. I wish there was a format online to help bring forward thinking adopters and connect them to forward thinking rescuers, like myself & other’s. It’s hard to find these kinds of people to adopt to.

I don’t agree with avoiding vaccines. Not everything about science and evolution is bad. while I agree that we over vaccinate, to say to avoid it is irresponsible and puts your pet in some danger zones and that really includes heart worm preventive. best options is to get blood work done and see what vaccines are needed.

Please study the real history of vaccines. I never leave my dog unprotected. I protect my dog better than vaccinated dogs with nosodes. Study nosodes and you will see they are much more effective against disease without the bad side effects caused by vaccines as vaccines contain carcinogenic chemicals, cancer cells, etc.
Don’t say NO to something until you have studied real studies and done real research.
I know most get their info from TV and mainstream media so they think vaccines are safe but the media advertises vaccines on the news to sell more vaccines and the side effects of vaccines is very profitable for the medical industry

Oh wow, the ignorance surrounding the US pet population and the facts regarding shelter numbers are incredibly sad. In fact the APPA states that only 5% of shelter dogs are purebred. Not to mention the APPA also states that 43% of shelter dogs/cats are a percentage of the 10 million lost and stolen pets yearly. There are 164 million pet cats/dogs in the US, meaning 1% end up in shelters. With about 4/6 million ending up in shelters (note: many of which are lost or stolen pets) and the majority get adopted. Of the 2 million euthanized there are many reasons from sadly the pit bull issues, aggression, illness, etc. Over 17 million families look to add a cat or dog to their lives yearly. This far exceeds shelter/rescue availability which is why shelters/rescues import over 500,000 puppies from outside the US yearly according to the CDC. Right now the northern states are facing a pet shortage crisis and getting adoptable pets from the southern states (who happen to get them from Mexico too). For the love of all that is holy, STOP spewing false propaganda and start supporting reputable breeders (who happen to work along with reputable rescues). In 5/10 years we will have a country wide dog shortage and you will be sorry as a dog lover to ever buy into the propaganda.

Also…any breeder worth talking with state very specifically that they take their animals back, no matter what, should the owner be unable to keep the pet. Under NO circumstances are these animals to be dumped in a shelter, or a rescue organization. It’s also interesting to note that, as far as dogs go (cats are different, IMO) that a hefty majority of dogs listed in shelters are “owner surrenders.” These animals HAD homes until the owners decided to dump their pet off, guilt free, to make room for a cute new puppy or kitten. Rarely, if ever, do we see truly feral dogs (cats, I’ll admit, yes we do.) The solution isn’t breeder vs. rescue; it’s cracking down on a society that views every living thing as disposable garbage and cracking down on the jerks who use rescues and shelters as their personal city dump for the cute baby animals that had the nerve to grow up.

Sorry, but I HIGHLY disagree with you. As a long time rescuer, networking w/ many other rescuers, there is NO shortage of animals in either shelter’s or rescues. I don’t care what “statistic’s” you are sighting, it’s inaccurate! I am sure MANY Rescue people will be happy to chime in & give you the REAL statistic’s. I do NOT trust ANY governmental agency’s statistic’s! Most are corrupt & have good reason to lie. If you search thoroughly, you will find government agencies supporting puppy Mills & working diligently to support lobbying efforts to help inhumane puppymill breeders! Even if your talking about “legitimate humane breedersI” I doubt care! Until EVERY shelter, EVERY Rescue us EMPTY!, in my opinion, there shouldn’t be any breeders, PERIOD! Please don’t breed or buy, while Rescue animals DIE! I won’t go into it all here, but the information is out there, if anyone chooses to go to the trouble of uncovering the TRUTH about how the gov’t agency’s help puppy Mills continue to thrive!, regardless of the PROVEN cruelty that is PERVASIVE throughout the industry!

***Also*** As an experienced feral cat caretaker, MANY cats were people’s pets that most often were abandoned, that SOME make their way to food sources, such as businesses that are food based & they scrounge for their existence in garbage dumpsters, as well as hunting. Cats that are domesticated very often do NOT do well when they come upon already settled feral colonies; many times they oust the newcomers. The sad fact is, that EVERY free roaming dog in the USA will be picked up by animal control & maybe they will have the chance to be adopted out, many will be unlucky due to overcrowding; whereas cats that were abandoned to the streets will NOT EVER be picked up by animal rescue. The longer these domestic cats remain on the streets world intervention (fostered/adopted) They have no choice but to take on feral instincts in ice to survive..but then they are barely ever, if never, given a second chance because there is a SEVERE lack of fosters to help them get over there ptsd from their abandonment to be able to have a chance to have a second chance at life & found a new forever home Yes, dogs have it bad too, but cats, by far, have it far worse, & many less available foster situations and many many remain on the streets, very sadly, for the rest about their lives. I know! I cats for many many feral cat colonies, so I personally see if 1St hand!!!! It is heartbreaking 💔, to say the least!!!!

I don’t know, I volunteer at a shelter (one of three in my area) and always have over 100 dogs, good dogs needing homes. We everything from big dogs to small dogs. Loving dogs who need homes. There are so many dogs out there who just want to be loved and need a home. It is really sad to me